(Clearwisdom.net) I was often sick when I was a child and had congenital asthma. My mother began practicing Falun Gong for health reasons and she has been healthy ever since. With her encouragement, in my third year of junior high school, I began practicing Falun Gong as well. A miraculous thing happened – my illnesses disappeared and I was cured of my asthma. I was very grateful for everything that Teacher and Dafa granted me.
With a healthy body, I began senior high school and my studies kept me very busy. Because I put a lot of effort into my studies, I overlooked Fa study and doing the exercises. My mother reminded me many times not to overlook Fa study, since the true purpose of cultivation was not getting good grades in school or obtaining fame or self-interest among everyday people. However, I couldn't enlighten to it. I thought that by cultivating Dafa and my body being purified, Teacher was enabling me to do well at school.
However, due to my strong attachment to doing well at school, my scores dropped. Even though I studied the Fa with my mother every week, I was purposefully hiding my attachment to getting great results and being the best among my classmates. Therefore, I studied the Fa, but didn't take it to heart, not to mention my lack of doing solid, diligent cultivation. Even so, Teacher had compassion for me and tried to help me enlighten. My scores dropped, but I still ranked as a top student, and sometimes my scores were the highest. After my final year of senior high school, I felt more of a need to be admitted to a first-class university. I spent very little time studying the Fa, and used most of my time doing school assignments. There were times when I only listened to the Fa very briefly and without paying much attention. Seeing this, my mother tried hard to remind me, but I always refuted her by saying, "As a school student, one should put one's study first." With this strong attachment, I actually did very poorly in the university entrance exam. Both my teacher and classmates were surprised by this, and I was extremely disappointed as well. At that time, my mother shared with me on many Fa principles.
After I calmed down, I came to realize that I was using Dafa and Teacher's compassion. I thought that, by being a practitioner, one could have anything one desired. I realized that cultivation is not for the purpose of leading a happy life or improving one's life, but for eliminating the attachment of pursuit. When we do things by following the requirements of Dafa, Teacher will grant us the best things, though they may not be considered best by everyday people. Teacher said,
"...with ordinary-person thoughts and with an ordinary person's basis, and then that's just ordinary people," ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
Too often we cover up our attachments by using cultivation as a facade, and still pursue what we want in life. Practitioners should not behave this way. As practitioners, we should follow the requirements of the Fa to cultivate, not add in any human thoughts or pursuits, and remain simple and pure.
Category: Improving Oneself
